Sandi's 2022 multipart challenge

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SandiSAHM
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Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Oklahoma

Sandi's 2022 multipart challenge

Post by SandiSAHM »

In preparation for a fresh (set of) challenge(s), I've joined the Uber Frugal January...(? I know I'm making a mess of the name) - a "open your eyes to how you've been using your money" thing being run by the gal who does the Frugalwoods blog. I don't have or want facebook, so I'm just reading the daily challenges for January, the pre-challenge is to look back and ask myself some hard ?s about where our $ has gone in 2021 (bicycles, biking location vacations, and flooring, that's where it went :lol:).

In May or June of 2023, we're hoping to take a trip as a family (likely the last 'big' trip as a family, since after that DD will be starting in her career and DS will be starting college - he'll do concurrent courses between now and then but in fall 2023, he'll be a college freshman, officially), to one of the big bike locations, like Whistler in BC or one of the places out East. We also have, at the end of next year, the intent to gift DS with a vehicle like we did DD - late model used, low mileage good condition, a model they like, so they don't have to worry about reliable transportation for several years.

All of this will have to be saved for so it can be done in the most economic / without being 'cheap' / way possible. And for that, we need to as a family see the financial outlook and determine if each upcoming potential expenditure is worth the $ it will withhold from the vacation & vehicle buckets. We've found the kids, particularly DS, happily cook instead of asking about take-out, and reuse & recycle, really well when the savings is tied to an 'experience' goal.

DD also needs to tend to her tax filing for 2021. She's due a hefty return. We'll have to pay again. It took me 2 tries to get the childcare advance thing they were sending quarterly stopped, the last thing we needed was an advance on a return that isn't going to materialize; now we'll just owe more! (I saved it separate from our actual savings knowing it'll just have to go back). I think our accountant needs to go ahead and over-plan my SS payments for 2022, he's playing it to close to the cuff, anything (like that end of year bonus) unexpected tilts all the #s. sigh.
SandiSAHM
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Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Sandi's 2022 multipart challenge

Post by SandiSAHM »

It's the unofficial end of January. $ was saved; $ was spent. More $ was spent that I'd prefer, but what can you do (deny the boy Magura brakes for the bike - but he made a 40% contribution to that, so...whatever).

Groceries are CRAZY high, and his culinary arts (elective, jr in high school - homeschooled via an online academy) teacher is either not thinking about the current supply chain climate (cheesecake? Does she know that's 4 blocks of cream cheese? The month after Philadelphia was paying people NOT to buy cream cheese?) and this week... fruit recipes? It's the first few days of February (class is on the 3rd).

DS wishes it were July, he reeeally wants to carve a watermelon into something artsy. Which reminds me, a friend of ours can carve swans out of apples, I'll have to see if there's a tutorial for that. 'Cause I'm not buying a watermelon from....? at a premium for that class. The strawberries here now are from Mexico, but I didn't see watermelon. Saw nectarines from Chile. Boy those were expensive!!
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MackerelCat
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Re: Sandi's 2022 multipart challenge

Post by MackerelCat »

The thing about cheesecake is astonishing. I'm not sure there were four packs of cream cheese in our entire little town last week. DH had to drive over the state line to find some for his morning bagels, which he refuses to do without.

I thought about doing the Frugalwoods program, but decided next year would probably be better. This half-year we absolutely know where our money is going as we're doing our own no-silly-spending challenge to knock out our consumer debt. When the constraint is off is when an outside tune-up will be needed.
Mackie
SandiSAHM
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Re: Sandi's 2022 multipart challenge

Post by SandiSAHM »

MackerelCat wrote: Mon Jan 31, 2022 9:09 am The thing about cheesecake is astonishing. I'm not sure there were four packs of cream cheese in our entire little town last week. DH had to drive over the state line to find some for his morning bagels, which he refuses to do without.

I thought about doing the Frugalwoods program, but decided next year would probably be better. This half-year we absolutely know where our money is going as we're doing our own no-silly-spending challenge to knock out our consumer debt. When the constraint is off is when an outside tune-up will be needed.
The cream cheese shortage, here, was pretty short-lived, there were outages at DD's employer and at Aldi, but we lucked out and DS was able to produce a full cheesecake. We could have made a tofu not-'cheese'-cake in a pinch.

The Frugalwoods program... I meant well, :lol:, and I read the emails they send, and it feels almost like a great thing to go over with with those in their late teens/early 20s - questioning the motivation for spending. Those of us who have been there and done all that...it just feels like 'review.' It reminds me why we do what we do, but there have been no "Ah-ha!" moments.

I did have a long talk with DD about the cost of living on one's own. I was reading about the bump in rental costs in various places - one single mom's rent jumped from $1500 to $2200 a month, causing her to have to move - I know much of this is "make up for the lost $ during the peak of covid" sort of mentality by landlords but for Pete's sake, how are people EVER supposed to make ends meet? DD has a friend in her late 20s in BC who has an LDR going on, but still lives with her folks, saving most of her earnings for a house one day. That seems to be the only way to go, perish the thought DD decide to make some landlord or corporation happy while wasting her earnings. When I left home (dinosaurs roamed the earth) I was in a decent apartment for $500/mo. $500 won't get you a broom closet now. Even here, rent is crazy, and we're hardly a major metropolitan area.

I read that many apartment renters are spending 50% of their take-home on rent. That's nuts!
HappyDaze
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Re: Sandi's 2022 multipart challenge

Post by HappyDaze »

Oh Sandi, those rents are terrible! Where I live, on the high end, you can rent a whole house for $1,000 and most apartments go from $500 to $800. Speaking of when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I rented my first apartment in the fall of 1981 for $90 a month - not a typo! It had a kitchen with a tiny stove, tiny frige, another room and a bathroom with no shower - just a claw foot tub. You are wise to try to prepare your DD for what it is like - it is not easy to be sure.
"All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. After all, he was only human. He wasn't a dog."

Charles M. Schultz
SandiSAHM
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Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Sandi's 2022 multipart challenge

Post by SandiSAHM »

HappyDaze wrote: Thu Feb 03, 2022 5:23 am Oh Sandi, those rents are terrible! Where I live, on the high end, you can rent a whole house for $1,000 and most apartments go from $500 to $800. Speaking of when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I rented my first apartment in the fall of 1981 for $90 a month - not a typo! It had a kitchen with a tiny stove, tiny frige, another room and a bathroom with no shower - just a claw foot tub. You are wise to try to prepare your DD for what it is like - it is not easy to be sure.
My neighbor who moved away rents the house next door out for over $2100 a month, and it is neither large (1500ish sq ft) nor "fancy." And that doesn't include any utilities. It's got a fenced (privacy) yard, and it's a nice neighborhood overall, but no neighborhood pool or any real amenities specific to the area. The only major draw to this neighborhood is that it's reasonably quiet 'most' of the time.

The apartment we rented in late 2015, 2-bd / 2-bath with laundry hook-ups has gone up from $984 a month to $1259 (:shock:) - the only included utility is an internet cable connection, water and electricity aren't included. That place wasn't even worth the $984. My first apartment was cheap and looked it, LOL, but the 2nd was a 2-level condo, 2bd/2ba with a big back deck, super nice place with a $500/mo price tag. I had a roommate so we split the rent and utilities. My COL was great there.

My ex's apartment in the city where we met was amazing - great kitchen, nice layout, huge balcony overlooking a pond with ducks - $450/mo, expensive for a 1bd/1bath but worth it for the ducks, lol. I bet the same now would go for a pretty penny!

I hope DD listens. She's being schmoozed by the traveling tech recruitment folks - turns out that taking 6-12mo contracts at hospitals in different places pays a lot more (low $100k+/yr) than more formal hospital positions. I've warned her to look at ALL the pay vs benefit info - if you have to buy your insurance on the open market, don't get continuing ed assistance, don't have a 401(k) plan... these things add up, value-wise. If you take a job in a place with a high COL, the $ may be look good but you may not keep as much of it.

And also because it's illogical to pay $100k/yr for a position that's kind of like a temp - it means that keeping someone in a full-time 'real' position COSTS THEM MORE THAN $100k/yr, even if the 'pay' is $65-75k. Otherwise, why would they do it? It clicked, I could see it, LOL. Then we got into the "and they're paying the agency even more than that, otherwise the agency couldn't exist..." Children. You just keep on teaching...

At least now when my own mother tells me, a 56-yr old living where it just snowed, to "stay home because people can't drive well in snow there," I don't even have to bite my tongue anymore, I just think, if I'm blessed enough to still be around when my kids are 56, will I say something like that? Yes? Oh boy... "Thanks, Mom, I'll sure stay home!"
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